Five people who would have made for a better alternative for Ace Steele than Colt Cabana
By Scott Keith on 2nd September 2022
1. Bryan Danielson: Because Moxley's become an obnoxious shit since Punk came back and Bryan thinks he needs to be knocked down a couple of pegs and only Punk can do it.
2. Avery Good: Chaos candidate. While Moxley's jerking himself off crowing about how great he is, how Punk sucks, etc etc etc and waving around the open contract, the lights go out. They come back on and the former Dasher Hatfield's in the ring, baseball bat in hand and gets 2-3 minutes of absolutely brutalizing Moxley with the bat and then picking up the now bloodstained contract. As he is being taken away by the police, Punk is arriving at the arena and Avery (with help from his former Chikaran partner in crime Ruby Soho) manages to pass the contract to Punk while yelling at him “you owe me big time” as the police take him away. Setting up a one-off Punk/Good match down the line once Punk gets the belt as Punk repaying Avery the favor down the line.
3. FTR: the safest of choices, in terms of getting the contract to Punk and giving him the needed pep talk so that he can take point guard against the cancer that is the Elite and their cronies like Moxley.
4. Dustin Rhodes: because he's still there damnit! And going with the Bryan Danielson scenario, he thinks Moxley's gotten too arrogant and obnoxious and needs to be brought down a couple of pegs.
5. Jade Carhill: Because Jade respects and admires Punk and won't tolerate him being a crybaby when the future of the company is at stake. AEW needs strong leadership and Jade would rather have a guy like Punk as top dog than a drunk like Moxley, a cowardly pussy like Hangman, or a degenerate who wrestles blow up dolls and little girls like Omega running things.